Five Housing Mistakes You Should Not Make If You Were A Sports Celebrity

Sports celebrities swim in three things, cash, fame and private pools. Because of the former two, they tend to have very expensive lifestyles and sometimes can spend thousands of dollars in a day in order to keep up with their status. But one of the biggest money gambles all sports celebrities make is when purchasing a home. You will find that while many of them can barely afford to, they will go to great lengths to purchase very expensive homes without regard to the intricacies involved in the transaction. So if you are a budding sports celebrity contemplating a big housing move, here are five mistakes you should not make.

Use all Your Earnings on the Purchase Price

Well, you just signed a new contract worth $50 million over five years and the first thing you do is go look for a house upwards of $20 million. Big mistake. Out of all the earnings you will make, the government will take up to 30% of it in taxes and then you have to contend with a high cost of celebrity living, which will wipe out another 20% over five years. This leaves you with a hypothetical $25 million. That house with a listing price of $20 million may seem affordable but the property rates, taxes and other additional costs will set you back up to $250K per year to maintain the property. This will drain you faster than you can throw that curve ball or shoot that hoop.

Buy a House in a Far Away Country

Sure, you have various movie and music celebrities living in their posh residences in France, Italy and Spain, the playgrounds for the rich. But this could also turn out to be a big blunder. Actors and musicians can afford to live non-geographically, as it were, because when they are recording or acting, they can be pretty much anywhere in the world. In addition, they tend to have pretty extended hiatuses between movies or albums so they can live anywhere at this time. As a sports celebrity, you ply your trade in a very limited geographical area and when you are not playing you are training and when you are not playing, well, you are training. This would make it very difficult to keep flying off to the south of France to take some rest.

Leave all the purchasing decisions to your lawyers

Lawyers are a necessary evil in our society, where the operative term here is evil. Knowing that they can get very high retention fees from you as a celebrity sports star, they will play any tune you request without caring too much to inform you dully of the risks involved. For instance, some lawyers may advise you to invest your fortune in real estate and “flip” houses. This makes sense and is usually a good idea, but not when you are trying to flip million dollar houses. These ones take time to sell and they do not always offer a good return on investment. Moreover, when you do get into hard times, guess who will be the first to ditch you for the next big thing? Yes, those lawyers that promised you heaven. Take time to understand your trade, whether it will be flipping house or running a fast food chain, then work with family and close associates to realize this incrementally.

Decide to divorce your wife of ten years

Well, this is perhaps the hardest to implement because most people do not enter marriage with the intention of divorce. But just ask Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods, divorces hit you where it hurts the most, your bank account and in the settlements guess who ends up with the house, your estranged wife. So treat her nice and be faithful to her, if you have made a big home investment, it will go a long way in ensuring it stays in the family, literally. If you decide it’s time to pack your bags and go live a little, be prepared to leave a sizable chunk of your earning s behind.

Guest post by Scott Ryan, who is not a celebrity sports personality but who thinks he is a celebrity writer for Call Mum, a real estate upgrading firm.

Image Credit: 1, 2, 3.

5 Inspiring People Who Changed the World Despite Life-Threatening Obstacles

Imagine having to go to work each day in a wheelchair because your muscles have become paralyzed, or constantly having to struggle with suicidal thoughts along with the weight of a nation’s future on your shoulders. It’s difficult enough for one person to change the world as it is, but imagine how monumental such a task becomes when you are also suffering from a life-threatening condition.

Amazingly, history is filled with figures who have managed to make their marks on the world all while struggling with a serious disability. Some had to battle with the ravages of an incurable disease, while others were born with conditions that haunted them for their entire lives. Regardless of the burden, these people are a testimony to the strength of the human will and the perseverance of the body.

Perhaps you have witnessed people suffering from life-threatening obstacles and want to do something to help them by pursuing a career in health care. No matter which form of education you choose, from medical assisting training to a MD program, schooling alone will not prepare you to face the emotional turmoil that comes from treating patients with chronic illnesses.

There is always hope, however, even for those with untreatable conditions, and though they may not enter the pages of history like the following individuals, they are still capable of astonishing achievements.

Stephen Hawking

This year, famous physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking celebrated his 70th birthday in spite of a lifelong struggle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS), a degenerative neurological condition that results in paralysis and death, usually due to asphyxiation. Patients diagnosed with this disease usually die within a few years, yet Hawking continues to beat the odds since his initial diagnosis at the age of 21. Although he has been almost completely paralyzed for most of his adult life, Hawking remains one of the brightest scientific minds of today, especially when it comes to improving the world’s understanding of black holes and the origins of the universe.

Abraham Lincoln

There has been much speculation regarding the medical history of one of the United States’ most beloved presidents, but most historians agree that he suffered from chronic and sometimes debilitating fits of depression throughout his life. While clinical depression and other related mood disorders are not fatal by themselves, they can severely undermine a patient’s ability to function as well as drive them to commit suicide. Lincoln, however, managed to push through these moods with the firm belief that it was his destiny to perform great things in life; a worthy conviction considering that he led the nation through one of its darkest periods.

Frida Kahlo

Mexican surrealist/symbolist painter Frida Kahlo, known for her iconic self-portraits, has become a heroine for both feminists and Chicana culture due to her ability to infuse her work with the suffering she endured both physically and mentally. Her struggle began as a child when she contracted polio and lost the use of her leg. At the age of 18, she was severely injured by a tram and afterward was forced to undergo a series of painful operations. Her personal life was also marked with suffering due to her marriage to famous muralist Diego Rivera, who was constantly unfaithful to her. She continued to paint in spite of these ills, and though her work was relatively unknown while alive, she has become highly influential today.

Steve Jobs

In 2011, business and technology news sources around the world paid tribute to the life of Steve Jobs by recognizing the numerous innovations he has made in the computing industry. As one of the greatest business leaders of this century, he is responsible for revolutionizing the way people think about computers. His influence began with the founding of Apple with Steve Wozniak in 1976, which grew to become the most valuable company in the world by 2011, largely due to his keen business instincts. Even while suffering from the debilitating effects of pancreatic cancer he introduced the iPhone and iPad, which popularized portable computing just as the iPod did with MP3 players.

Flannery O’Connor

Most students of 20th century American literature have read at least one short story by Flannery O’Connor, one of the most important writers of the Southern gothic tradition. Known for her grotesque but deeply moral fiction, O’Connor used dark humor to subtly convey her Orthodox Catholic beliefs in a manner that few (if any) other religious writers have managed to repeat. Her resulting body of work, while small, still carries an enormous influence on the lives of other artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Tommy Lee Jones. Her lifelong struggle with lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissue, caused her a great deal of suffering and ultimately led to her death at the age of 39 from kidney failure.

Ryan Chapman is a writer from Phoenix, Arizona. He has written articles on medical assistant schools in Phoenix, as well as other education programs related to the medical field.

Image Credit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

5 Most Famous TV Doctors Of All Time

Medical dramas have been a part of the television landscape for more than five decades. Who knows how many young television viewers have been inspired to pursue a career in medicine thanks to the inspiration provided by Robert Young's "Dr. Marcus Welby", Deforest Kelley's "Dr. Leonard McCoy" on "Star Trek" and Chad Everett's "Dr. Joe Gannon" in "Medical Center." Here are 5 of the most famous TV doctors of all time who continue to keep audiences interested thanks to reruns and syndication:

The Too Cute Dr. Kildare

The intense young resident Dr. James Kildare was suavely portrayed by actor Richard Chamberlain who made patients in the series as well as female viewers swoon as he strived to save the sick and the dying at Blair General Hospital every week. The crusty and much older and wiser Dr. Gillespie, portrayed by veteran actor Raymond Massey, was Kildare's mentor and tutor in the series which enjoyed a long run during the early 1960s.

Calling Dr. Casey

Ben Casey, a highly skilled but always dour-faced neurosurgeon portrayed by actor Vince Edwards, is another of the most famous TV doctors of all times. Viewers often tuned in just to see if that would be the week that the infamously serious Dr. Casey might crack a smile. Like Dr. Gillespie on the Kildare series, Ben Casey also had its own much older physician to help guide the young doctor, portrayed in this series by Sam "Dr. David Zorba" Jaffe. Both Casey and Kildare ran during the early 1960s and a rivalry developed between those who favored the sweeter and blonder Dr. Kildare and the camp that were die-hard fans of the dark and swarthy Dr. Casey. In any event, sales of bubble gum cards featuring both series were fast and furious.

Female Frontier Doctor

Jane Seymour has the privilege of being the only female to be cast in her own medical drama, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman." Although there have been numerous female doctors who have been part of an ensemble cast in such medical dramas as "Grey's Anatomy", "St. Elsewhere" and "The Practice", "Dr. Quinn" revolved solely around the gentle and forthright Dr. Michaela Quinn who although born and trained in Boston, travelled west to the wilderness of Colorado Springs to establish a medical practice and start a new life.

Operating in a MASH Unit

M*A*S*H enjoyed an 11 year run and made a household name of Alan Alda, who played the fun-loving, womanizing Army surgeon Dr. Benjamin Franklin Pierce, nicknamed "Hawk Eye." The subject matter was mostly comedic, dealing with medical situations at an Army hospital during the Korean War and Alda was supported by a brilliant cast of other acting veterans who also portrayed doctors at the MASH unit, including Harry Morgan, Mike Farrell and David Ogden Stiers.

TV's First Black Doctor

Two years before comedian Bill Cosby portrayed an OB-GYN on his comedy series "The Cosby Show", actor Denzel Washington in 1982 became the first African-American to portray a doctor. He did so in the award winning network television drama "St. Elsewhere", as Dr. Philip Chandler who would leave the drama before its long run ended to pursue film opportunities, specialized in Internal Medicine at the fictitious St. Elegius Hospital in Boston.

Brendan McGuane has recently completed his medical studies and has a passion for good television. He is currently looking for medical doctor jobs through Healthtaff Recruitment and says that although there have been many influential TV doctors, these particular doctors have stood the test of time to prove themselves as the most famous.

Image Credit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Kim Kardashian Wedding VS. Average Weddings

If you’re about to get married you’re probably going through a lot of stress. There are a gazillion things to consider when planning a wedding. You have to find the perfect location for the wedding ceremony and the reception, figure out which catering service to employ and what kind of food to serve, choose the motif and find someone who can make the dresses, and more!

Like anyone who works hard and is dedicated to succeed, you need a breather. Read through this infographic provided by Brilliance which lists down a comparison of how much the wedding of Kim Kardashian to Chris Humpries really cost as compared to how much is spent for a regular wedding. Reading about this will certainly remind you that even though they spent millions of dollars, their marriage only lasted a mere 72 days. A very costly, shortlived married life for the ex-partners in life. You can then think about how much you love the person you are getting married to and smile because you’re certain that even if you won’t spend as much as Kardashian did, your marriage will be real and will last longer.

Source: Brilliance.com